At the annual Experimental Fashion Event, artists and designers from the Fiber Department’s Multi Media Event class transform 2640 (St. John’s Church) into a venue for innovative fashion and costume design by pushing the boundaries of fashion and art through live performances and projected video.

Maya Graffagna is a senior at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) studying Fiber, Experimental Fashion, and Graphic Design. She intends to pursue costume design for the theater after graduating, as well as her work focusing on connections between different cultures around the world.

Of Japanese and American descent, Maya investigates the ideals of beauty in the two cultures as well as her own struggle for identity through Ideallision. The garments become a kind of cultural hybrid, incorporating and combining design elements and materials from Japan and the West. Exaggerated and distorted silhouettes in the garments address conflicting notions of the ideal female form in both cultures.